Stiffener for footwear and method of preparing the same



Feb. 6, 1934. D. MACDQNALD 1,945,650

STIFFENER FOR FOOTWEAR AND METHOD OF PREPARING THE SAME Filed Dec. 6, 1930 Patented Feb. 6, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE OF PREPARING THE SAM David Baird Macdonald, Leicester, England, as-

signor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 6, 1930, Serial No. 500,573,

and in Great Britain 15 Claims.

This invention relates to wear and methods of preparing the same and is particularly, but by no means exclusively, concerned with the stiffening of portions of the uppers of shoes. For the purpose of illustration, but not of limitation, the invention will be explained in relation to the production of toe stifieners, commonly called box toes, for use in shoes.

It is usually desirable that box toes, as well as other shoe stifieners, shall, at some, if not all, of their marginal portions be relatively thin or relatively flimsy, or both, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel and economical method of procedure for attaining either or both of these desirable marginal conditions.

In one of its aspects the invention may be regarded as consisting in a method of preparing a stiffener blank of absorbent material which comprises applying protective material to a marginal portion of the blank and thereby reducing the absorptivity of said marginal portion relatively to the body portion of the blank. Then when the blank is stifiened by charging it with a suitable stifiening composition most or all of stifieners for footthe said composition will be absorbed by the body portion of the blank, the protected marginal portion resisting penetration by the stiffening composition and remaining relatively limp.

The invention also includes the preparation of a stiffener blank of flimsy material which is poorly suited for skiving in its original condition by applying to a marginal portion of the blank protective material which will strengthen and make said marginal portion sufliciently firm to permit it to be skived either before or after the blank is charged with stifiening composition.

In the following detailed description illustrative examples of the application of the invention to the making of toe stiffeners consisting of blanks of fibrous material charged with a celluloid or like solution are given and different protective materials, such as farina and rubber, which are well suited to impart a desirable marginal condition to blanks stiffened with celluloid are mentioned, but it should be understood that it is within the scope of the invention to utilize other equivalent protective materials as well as to stiffen the blank with compositions other than celluloid.

Considered in another aspect, invention is to be recognized in a novel shoe stifiener of absorbent material having a stiiT body portion impregnated with a suitable composition, as

December 18, 192-9 celluloid, and a flexible margin portion charged with stiffener resistant material, as farina, rubber, or the like.

The above and other features of the invention and benefits to be derived therefrom will become clear to those skilled in the art from the following discussion of illustrative examples there of when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of a the marginal portion of rial has been applied;

- Fig. 2 illustrates the step of skiving the protectively treated marginal portion of the blank; and

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the blank after the stiffening composition has been applied.

For the sake of illustration, let it be assumed that box toe blanks of the kind described in the copending application of and Ronald B. Macdonald, September 23, 1930, and in air-tight containers in to be made.

which protective mate- Serial No. 483,872, filed intended to be packed a moist condition, are In such a case the production of a thinned margin, or of a relatively flimsy margin,

on the box toe stiifener presents certain problems, The box toes charged with stiffening substance, and in the condition in which they are to be packed, are poorly adapted to skiving in the most economical manner, while the flimsy blanks of fabric, prior to their being charged with the stiifem'ng substance, are also, owing to their flimsiness, not in a condition that facilitates skiving by usual methods.

In applying the invention in one way in dealing 00 with such a case, the fabric blanks have one or more of their margins charged in the first place with a suitable protective material. For instance, the back margin of the blank, indicated at 10 in the drawing, may be caused farina gelled in water so that when the margin of the blank thus treated has been dried that margin, though still quite flexible, has lost the flimsiness of the untreated fabric which makes skiving of the latter 12 of the blank would be left in its natural condition with its absorptiveness unimpaired.

Blanks thus treated marginally, and dried, may be skived at the treated marginal portions and then charged with the stiffening paste of or celluloid-resin solution. On the other hand, the blanks marginally treatedas indicated, and dried, may be passed into the impregnating apparatus without skiving and any necessary skiving may be performed after the impregnating. and 110 box toe blank to 65 David B. Macdonald 76 to soak up sufiicient difficult. The body portion celluloid 1 evaporation,

as new and desired before the moist celluloid laden blanks are packed in their containers, since the farina in the treated margin will not have been softened by the celluloid paste and that margin will therefore, at that time, have sufficient strength and firmness to allow it to be skived readily. The skiving of the blank may be effected in any suitable manner, as illustrated in Fig. 2, wherein 14 indicates a skiving knife and 16 a support for the margin of the blank while it is being skived. In Fig. 3 the blank is shown as having its absorbent body portion 12 impregnated with the stiffening solution or material.

Skiving of the marginally treated blank may become unnecessary, or its amount may be reduced, if a flimsy character of stiffener margin, such as is primarily what is required for box toes in plain vamp shoes, is what is being sought, rather than merely a thinned margin, such as is primarily what is required for toe-capped shoes. Under these circumstances, the diminished absorptiveness of the blank, at its treated margin, for the celluloid solution which arises from the previous charging of the fibrous material with farina, may result in so little celluloid being taken up by the fabric at its margin as to allow the desired character of the stiffener at this margin to be obtained with little or no skiving of the margin.

If the desired final result is intended to be attained in such a way without skiving, drying of the marginally treated edge before the blank enters the impregnating apparatus becomes unimportant since water taken into the margin of the fabric with the farina, and still present when the blank meets the celluloid solution, plays its own part in repelling the stiffening substance from the treated margin.

However, when a flimsy rather than a merely skived edge is what is desired, the margin of the blank .is preferably charged before saturation with an agent which not only impedes the entry of stiffening substance into the charged margin, as does farina gelled in water, but is itself adapted to do this without imparting any real measure of stiffness to the margin. For example, the margin may be charged with rubber in the form of a rubber solution, or an aqueous rubber dispersion, and the solvent or water removed by so that when the blank is afterwards passed into the impregnating apparatus, it will freely absorb celluloid solution everywhere, ex cept at the treated margin, which will remain limp and rubbery in the final product.

Having described the invention, what is claimed I to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. The method of preparing a shoe stiffener which comprises providing a blank of porous, absorbent material and charging the marginal portion only of the blank with a non-stiffening substance to reduce the absorptivity of that portion preparatory to treating the blank with a solution of a stiffening substance.

2. The method of preparing a stiffener blank of absorbent material for use in shoes which comprises applying protective material to a marginal portion only of the blank, thereby reducing the absorptivity of said marginal portion, then applying stiffening composition to the blank and permitting said composition to penetrate the absorbent body portion of the blank.

3. The method of preparing a stiffener blank of absorbent material for use in shoes which com- .iprises applying'protective material to a portion only of the blank, thereby reducing the absorptivity of said portion, then applying stiffening composit on to the blank and permitting said composition to penetrate the absorbent portion of the blank to which the protective material has not been applied.

4. The method of preparing a stiffener blank of flimsy material for use in shoes which comprises applying protective material to a marginal portion of the blank, skiving said marginal portion and then applying stiffening composition to the blank.

5. The method of preparing a stiffener blank of flimsy, absorbent material for use in shoes which comprises strengthening and reducing the absorptivity of a marginal portion of the blank with flexible, non-sticky material, skiving the strengthened marginal portion, then applying stiffening composition to the blank and permitting said composition to penetrate and stiffen the absorbent body portion of the blank.

6. The method of making a celluloid stiffened shoe part which comprises applying celluloidresisfant material to a portion of a blank and then applying celluloid stiffening composition to portions of the blank including that to which the resistant material has been applied, whereby only those portions of the blank to which the resistant material has not been applied will be stiffened.

7. The method of making a celluloid stiffened shoe part which comprises applying celluloidresistant material to a marginal portion of a blank and then applying celluloid stiffening composition to the blank.

8. The method of making a celluloid stiffened shoe part which comprises applying a solution of farina to a marginal portion of a blank, allowing said marginal portion to dry, and then applying celluloid stiffening composition to the blank.

9. The method of making a celluloid stiffened 115 shoe part which comprises applying a solution of farina to a marginal portion of a blank, allowing said marginal portion to dry, skiving said marginal portion, and then applying celluloid stiffening composition to the blank. 1 10. The method of making a celluloid stiffened shoe part which comprises applying a solution of rubber to a marginal portion of a blank, allowing said marginal portion to dry, and then applying celluloid stiffening composition to the blank. 125

11. The method of making a celluloid stiffened shoe part which comprises applying an aqueous dispersion of rubber to a marginal portion of a blank, allowing said marginal portion to dry, and

then applying celluloid stiffening composition to 0 the blank.

12. A shoe stiffener of absorbent material having a stiff body portion impregnated with celluloid and a flexible marginal portion charged with celluloid-resistant material. 1

13. A shoe stiffener of absorbent material having a stiff body portion impregnated with celluloid and a flexible marginal portion charged with farina.

14. A shoe stiffener of absorbent material 4 having a stiff body portion impregnated with celluloid and a flexible marginal portion charged with rubber.

15. A step product in the manufacture of shoe stiffeners comprising a blank of flexible porous absorbent material having a margin thereof impregnated with a non-stiffening substance adapted to reduce the absorptivity of said margin, the blank being otherwise in its normal absorptive state. DAVID BAIRD MACDONALD. 

